Nexus Earth Newsletter April 2017

It has been an exciting and very active month for Nexus. Our Community continues to grow. We now have over 1,600 Slack members and our Facebook Group has increased to over 500 members! More people are getting involved and taking on important tasks to help Nexus grow. Like a tree, Nexus is built from the ground up with a strong base consisting of tens of thousands of lines of unique code, and an energetic Community. Thanks to everyone helping Nexus form an unshakable foundation! We recently welcomed a new Team member, Glen Luyckx, to Nexus. Glen goes by the screenname mrprobz and can be seen regularly in Slack helping with technical support and Community outreach. Welcome Glen!

Coinpayments and Coinomi

Nexus was recently added to Coinpayments after the Community came together and donated the 1 BTC required to be integrated into the payment system. Nexus can now be accepted on any website as a payment method! The first website to accept Nexus is https://www.pexpeppers.com/. Check the website out if you are looking for some all natural hot sauce or hot pepper seeds.

The Nexus Team also recently paid to have Nexus added to the Coinomi multicoin wallet. Coinomi developers are actively working on completing the integration and should have Nexus up and running on their wallet very soon. Since Nexus has a great deal of original code, Coinomi has to do some additional coding to complete the addition. Once complete, Nexus will be able to be used on any Android device by downloading the Coinomi Wallet App.

Nexus Swag Store

This past month we premiered the Nexus Swag Store. Clothing sizes tend to run about a size small, but are of great quality. A variety of logos, colors, and styles are available. There are also items such as coffee mugs, tablets, phone cases, and blankets. All proceeds go towards the Nexus Marketing budget. We have had many requests for Nexus hats and are currently searching for a supplier. We may decide to sell them directly through the NexusEarth.com website via Coinpayments.

Nexus Testnet and Improved Prime Channel Miner

The dedicated Testnet is now up and functioning. An improved CPU and CPU/GPU hybrid miner for the Prime Channel has been developed. The live testing has been ongoing over the past several weeks and the improvements have shown increased efficiency. The miner is almost ready for full-scale release.

Nexus Bounties and Tipbot

To reward those helping with Nexus, we have started issuing bounties for certain tasks. Some of the items with current bounties include development of a Prime Channel GPU Miner, a paper wallet generator, quality articles about Nexus, promotional videos, and graphic work. A list of current bounties is posted on the Nexus Forum Bounty Thread on NxsForum.com and is also available in the #nexus-bounties channel in the Nexus Slack. We also recently added a tipbot to our Slack to spread the love and to make it easier to send rewards. Feel free to join us on Slack and try it out.

Bitcoin.com Podcast Interview

Colin was recently interviewed for Bitcoin.com podcast that will air April 26th. The podcast hasn’t been released yet, but Colin talked at length about Bitcoin tech, a little about Litecoin, and of course about our favorite coin, Nexus. We will let everyone know in all of the official channels when it is released.

Vector Full Scale Test Launches

Many in the the Community were hanging out on Slack during the first full scale Vector Test Launch on April 6th. Colin was there helping and provided updates as the Community was glued to the @vectorspacesys Twitter channel for details. The launch ended with an automated pad abort and fortunately the rocket wasn’t damaged. A great deal of important data was collected, the issue was identified, and the relaunch is scheduled for May 3rd. Colin will also be on-site helping with this second test launch.

Colin’s Assistant

As I’m sure many of you know, Colin has become increasingly busy as a result of the many tasks required of him as Nexus continues to grow. With time being such a precious commodity, Colin has hired his good friend Ashley to help with communication, schedules, and other miscellaneous items. This now frees the time Colin was spending on these tasks and allows more time for Nexus development work. Ashley will know Colin’s schedule and will have an idea where Colin is and how to reach him for important matters when Colin disappears into his work. Ashley will also help the Team with other tasks as needed. You can find her in slack as user Concordia, so make sure to give her a warm welcome.

Vector and Nexus

As I’m sure you remember from the March newsletter, the Letter of Intent (LOI) between Vector and Nexus has been signed outlining the specifics of the Strategic Partnership. This agreement has progressed formally and the relationship between Nexus and Vector continues to be strengthened and continue on good terms. As the Nexus Community knows, Colin works a lot behind the scenes and does more than just writing artfully-crafted code.

We are very excited to announce Colin has secured an angel investor position with Vector. This gives Colin a vested financial interest in Vector and continues the business relationship with Nexus with the development of satellite and software technology. An “angel” position means Colin was able to participate in one of the early “bridge” funding rounds giving him the legal right to buy Series A, B, and C shares in the future to maintain his percent ownership in Vector. He participated in the round of financing along with other notable companies such as Desert Angels, Arizona Technology Investors, and Kurrent Investment from Phoenix, Arizona, USA. Below is an article outlining how the bridge round ended from the local Phoenix News:

To anyone following the Nexus Github repository, you can see there have been major updates (refactoring and designing) of the Nexus codebase. This is in preparation for the release of Tritium, which in and of itself is a 3 part update (Tritium, Tritium Trust, and Tritium ++) and creates the base of what is termed the TAO update series. This will include the release versions Tritium, Amine, and Obsidian (TAO).

Tritium begins when the Beta release is fully finished and uses a far more advanced backend coding structure that Colin has been developing for quite some time. The next step in the sequence of the Tritium release will be the long anticipated Tritium Trust update. The Trust update will replace the existing Trust System with a new algorithm removing the issue with frequent Trust Key expiration. The Tritium Trust update will reactivate some of your highest interest Trust Keys and will also include significant other Network consensus updates. This will be followed by Tritium ++, which will complete the Tritium series and act as a cleanup build by including any necessary additions and adjustments to the code base. Tritium ++ and will also include an expansion of the protocol message sets that will ensure the base of the TAO will support all following updates.

The specifics of the Amine and Obsidian releases will be detailed at a later time. Once completed, the TAO update series is going to be a significant foundation, not only for Nexus, but also for any other cryptocurrency implementing the protocol and will make the architecture of blockchains available for mainstream use and adoption.

Team Member Profile

Keith F Smith is a Core team member of Nexus. Starting out on computers as a child in the early nineties, Keith was building websites by the age 12 and even started a web development company. By age 16, he was taking college courses for computer information systems and working as a Microsoft Access database developer. Keith furthered his studies in computers at a local college, but decided to get into construction instead because of the many local job opportunities. He first found Bitcoin while organizing the Nationwide End The Fed marches and campaigning for Ron Paul. Years later in 2013, he finally made the plunge into cryptocurrencies and like many in crypto, he became heavily immersed.

Having been involved with other cryptocurrency teams where some of the major players had only their self interests at hand, Keith was looking for a likeminded folks who were interested in advancing the world through the blockchain and not merely in it for profit. Eventually, while attempting to implement his idea of variable proof of stake, he was introduced to Colin by Preston and they hit it off. Finally, Keith met someone who saw the big picture and shared his decentralized principles and also had the talent to make it happen. From Keith’s original idea, Colin was the only developer he met able to code what became NPoS and formed the basis for the need of Trust Keys. Keith built the current website and is currently working on the GUI for a future Nexus Wallet. He also produced several Nexus videos and continues to assist in steering the Vision of Nexus and building the Nexus presence in crypto. He loves family, fishing, and music. Having a deep understanding of economics, his influence runs deep in the economic model of Nexus. “BE THE DECENTRALIZATION” – Keith Smith